Looking back: the FIP Centennial

In 2012 the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) celebrated 100 years of existence and marked the occasion with the FIP Centennial Congress in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in October. The Centennial was more than just a Congress; it was an entire event that encompassed all that FIP and the pharmacy profession had accomplished over the past 100 years and set the stage for the future, all under the theme of ‘Improving health through responsible medicines use’ (Figure 1).

The Congress sessions were complemented and supported by key events never before seen at a FIP Congress, yet set a precedent for ground-breaking initiatives that will continue in years to follow. This is especially true of the FIP Stakeholder Roundtables, which brought together influential stakeholders from around the world and from a cross-section of sectors to discuss current and relevant issues facing the development and delivery of healthcare now and in the coming era.

The first series of Roundtables focused on the themes of ‘The right medicine to the right patient’, ‘Adherence’ and ‘The transformative power of shared information within health systems’ and were a source of strategies and solutions that were presented to a following Ministers’ Summit on ‘The benefits of responsible use of medicines: setting policies for better and cost effective healthcare’ organised by the Dutch Ministry of Health. The Summit convened Health Ministers and influential officials to dissect the issue of how investing more in the responsible use of medicines can positively influence health and, in turn, health spending.

Discussions within the Summit were based on the outcomes of the FIP Stakeholder Roundtables and two reports, one from the WHO entitled ‘The pursuit of responsible use of medicines: sharing and learning from country experiences’ and one from the IMS Institute …